on one of the laboratory's computer terminals.
There were forty-two of them in total, all multiple lifers or death-row candidates who had somehow escaped the chair.
'The worst of the worst,' Herbie said, nodding at the list of names.
Schofield had heard of many of them. Sylvester McLean — the child-murderer from Atlanta. Ronald Noonan — the Houston baker turned clock-tower sniper. Lucifer Leary — the serial killer from Phoenix. Seth Grimshaw — the notorious leader of the Black League, an ultra-violent terrorist organization that believed the U.S. government was preparing America for a United Nations takeover.
'Seth Grimshaw?' Gant said, seeing the name. She turned to Juliet Janson. 'Wasn't he the one who…?'
'Yes,' Janson said, glancing nervously at the President over on the far side of the lab. 'In early February. Just after the inauguration. He's a genuine 18–84.'
Gant said, 'Oh, man, do I hope their cages are sturdy.'
'All right. Great,' Schofield said. 'which brings us back to the here and now. We're shut in here. They want to kill the President. And because of the radio transmitter on his heart, if he dies, fourteen major cities go up in smoke.'
'And all right in front of the people of America,' Janson said.
'Not necessarily,' the President said, 'because Caesar wouldn't know about the LBJ Directive.'
'What's the LBJ Directive?' Schofield asked.
'It's a feature of the Emergency Broadcast System, but known only to the President and the Vice-President. It's essentially a safety valve, brought in by Lyndon Johnson in 1967, to stop the BBS from being used too soon.'
'So what does it do?'
'It provides for a forty-five-minute delay of any broadcast sent over the system, unless a presidential override code is entered. In other words, except in the most urgent circumstances, it stops a panic broadcast from being sent out, effectively allowing for a forty-five-minute cooling-off period.
'Now, since it's 8:09, Caesar's initial broadcast has got out there, but if we were to find the BBS transmission box inside this complex, we could stop all his subsequent transmissions.'
Schofield pursed his lips, thinking. 'That has to be a secondary consideration. Something to do only if we happen to be in the right place at the right time.'
He turned to Herbie. 'Tell us about this complex.'
Herbie shrugged. 'What's there to know? It's a fortress. Used to be NORAD headquarters.
When it shuts down, it shuts down. The thing is, I don't think anyone ever expected it to be used to keep someone locked in.'
'But even a total lockdown must have a release procedure,' Schofield said. 'Something which opens the doors when the crisis is over.'
Herbie nodded. 'The time lock.'
'Time lock?'
'In the event of total lockdown, a timer-controlled security system is activated. Every hour on the hour, those people still alive inside the base have a five-minute window period to enter one of three possible codes.'
'What kind of codes?' Gant asked.
'Remember,' Herbie said, 'this facility was intended for use in a full-scale U.S.-Soviet nuclear exchange. The codes reflect that. As such, there are three possible entry codes.'
'The first code simply continues the lockdown. The nuclear crisis is still going, so the facility remains locked down. The second code assumes the crisis has been resolved. It calls an end to the lockdown — armored blast doors are retracted and all entrances and exits are reopened.'
'And the third code?' Gant asked.
'The third code is a halfway measure — it allows for messenger escape. It authorizes title opening of individual exits and entrances for messengers to leave the facility.'
Schofield was listening to Herbie carefully.
'What happens when no code is entered during the hourly window period?' he asked.
'You're fast, Captain. You see, that's the kicker, isn't it? If no code is entered, the complex's computer is warned that the facility may have been taken by the enemy. It then gives you one chance to reenter one of the other codes at the next hourly window period. If no code is entered at that time, then the computer assumes that the facility has been taken by the enemy, at which point the facility's self-destruct mechanism is activated.'
'Self-destruct mechanism?' Brainiac blurted. 'What the fuck is that?'
'A one-hundred-megaton thermonuclear warhead buried beneath the complex,' Herbie said simply.
'Oh, Christ…' Brainiac said.
Gant said, 'Surely they removed that when the Soviet Union collapsed.'
'I'm afraid not,' Herbie said. 'When this base was reconfigured as a chemical weapons facility, it was decided that the self-destruct device still had value. If there was an accident and a virus spread throughout the facility, the whole contaminated complex — virus included — could be destroyed by a superheated nuclear blast.'
'Okay,' Schofield said, 'so if we want to leave, we have to wait for the hourly window period, find a computer connected to the central network, and then enter the correct code.'
'That's right,' Herbie said.
'So what are the codes?' Schofield asked.
Herbie shrugged helplessly. 'That I don't know. I can initiate a lockdown if there's been an outbreak, but I don't have clearance to undo one. Only the Air Force guys can do that…'
'Uh, excuse me,' Juliet Janson said, 'but aren't we forgetting something?'
'Like what?' Brainiac said.
'Like the Football,' Janson said. 'The President's briefcase. The one that's been rigged to stop him from escaping this complex. He has to press his palm against the analyzer plate on the Football once every ninety minutes, otherwise the plasma bombs in the cities go off.'
'Damn it,' Schofield said. He had forgotten all about that. He looked at his watch.
It was 8:12 a.m.
This had all started at 7:00 a.m. Which meant they had to get the President's hand onto the Football by 8:30.
He looked up at the others. 'Where are they keeping the Football?'
'Russell said it would be kept in the main hangar, up on ground level,' the President said.
'What do you think?' Gant said to Schofield.
'I don't think we have much choice. Somehow, we have to get his hand onto the Football.'
'But we can't keep doing that forever.'
'No,' Schofield said, 'we can't. At some point, we'll have to come up with a more long-term solution. But until then, we deal with the short-term ones.'
Janson said, 'It'd be suicide to bring the President out into the open upstairs, they'll almost certainly be waiting.'
'That's right,' Schofield stood up. 'Which is why we don't do that. What we do is quite straightforward. We bring the Football to him.'
'The first thing we have to do,' Schofield said, rounding everyone up, 'is take care of those security cameras. While they're still operating, we're screwed.' He turned to Herbie Franklin. 'Where's the central junction box in this place?'
'In the Level 1 hangar bay, I think, on the northern wall.'
'Okay,' Schofield said. 'Mother, Brainiac, I want you guys to take care of those cameras. Cut the power if you have to, I don't care, just shut down the camera system. You got me?'
'Got it,' Mother said.
'And take Dr. Franklin with you. If he's lying, shoot him.'
'Got it,' Mother said, eyeing Herbie suspiciously. Herbie gulped.
'What about the rest of us?' Juliet asked.
Schofield headed toward the short ramp that led to the wide aircraft elevator shaft.
'The rest of us are going upstairs to play some football.'
